Trial reportJournal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology2016
N-Acetylcysteine in the Treatment of Pediatric Tourette Syndrome: Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Add-On Trial.
Trial report in Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01172288 (Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of N-acetylcysteine), which is not on this map. Cited by 14 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for the Treatment of Children With Tourette Syndrome
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Complementary and Integrative Medicine for the Treatment of Tourette's Syndrome.Movement disorders clinical practice · 2026Pooled it
- Non-invasive brain stimulation as therapy: systematic review and recommendations with a focus on the treatment of Tourette syndrome.Experimental brain research · 2022Pooled it
- Comprehensive systematic review summary: Treatment of tics in people with Tourette syndrome and chronic tic disorders.Neurology · 2019Pooled it
- Chinese Expert Consensus on Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine for the Treatment of Tic Disorders.Journal of evidence-based medicine · 2025Article
- Why Tic Severity Changes from Then to Now and from Here to There.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Review
- The Potential of N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC) in the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders.CNS drugs · 2022Review
- Antioxidants as a Potential Target against Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- N-Acetylcysteine for Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Small Pilot Study.Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology · 2020Article
- Pharmacotherapies to tics: a systematic review.Oncotarget · 2018Article
- Current Approaches and New Developments in the Pharmacological Management of Tourette Syndrome.CNS drugs · 2018Review
- Merging the Pathophysiology and Pharmacotherapy of Tics.Tremor and other hyperkinetic movements (New York, N.Y.) · 2018Review
- Use of N-Acetylcysteine in Psychiatric Conditions among Children and Adolescents: A Scoping Review.Cureus · 2017Article
- Tourette syndrome research highlights from 2016.F1000Research · 2017Review
- Trichotillomania is more related to Tourette disorder than to obsessive-compulsive disorder.Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999)Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCurrent pharmacological treatments for Tourette Syndrome (TS), such as antipsychotic agents and α-2 agonists, are moderately effective in the treatment of tics, but have substantial side effects that limit their use. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) modulates glutamatergic systems, and has been used safely as an antioxidant agent with minimal side effects for decades. NAC has been increasingly studied for the treatment of other obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders. We aim to examine the efficacy of NAC for the treatment of pediatric TS in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, add-on study.
methodsThirty-one children and adolescents 8-17 years of age with TS were randomly assigned to receive NAC or matching placebo for 12 weeks. Our primary outcome was change in severity of tics as measured by the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS), Total tic score. Secondary measures assessed comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Linear mixed models in SAS were used to examine differences between NAC and placebo.
resultsOf 31 randomized subjects, 14 were assigned to placebo (two females; 11.5 + 2.8 years) and 17 to active NAC (five females; 12.4 + 1.4 years) treatment. No significant difference between NAC and placebo was found in reducing tic severity or any secondary outcomes.
conclusionsWe found no evidence for efficacy of NAC in treating tic symptoms. Our findings stand in contrast to studies suggesting benefits of NAC in the treatment of other obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders in adults, including OCD and trichotillomania, but are similar to a recent placebo-controlled trial of pediatric trichotillomania that found no benefit of NAC.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.